Late Night Lingering
by zigzagwarbler
Summary: Joey Richter/Chris Colfer. In which Darren Criss may or may not be a matchmaker, Joey Richter has some murderous urges, and Chris Colfer is entirely adorable in unsurprising ways.


"You're nervous," Darren says with a grin. "You know there's no reason to be nervous, right? He doesn't like... bite, or anything."

"Fuck you," Joey says, checking his tie in the mirror for a fourth time.

"Aw, come on, I think it's cute." Darren reaches out to try and muss Joey's hair, but Joey ducks away. He's spent too long fixing his hair to let Darren fuck with it.

It's a party. It's a lot like other parties Joey has been to except the booze is more expensive, the cups aren't red and plastic, and the people are more famous.

But it's still booze and it's still a party and Joey likes parties. He likes parties and he likes people. He's fine mingling, especially after his second drink. He's meeting people, talking, making new friends, filing away names. He's doing great, doing fucking Igood/I, until-

"Hey!" His voice squeaks in a way that makes him want to wince but he tries not to, tries to play it cool.

Chris just grins at him, cheeks flushed and eyes bright. "Darren told me you were hanging out around here. Having fun?"

"Darren said that, huh?"

Note to self: Kill Darren. Later, when there aren't high profile witnesses that would flock to the chance to testify just for the soundbites around.

"Yep," Chris says, and then he giggles. iGiggles/i. He giggles and Joey undergoes some sort of metamorphosis back into what he never actually was, some slightly hairy way too tall version of a twelve year old girl. His stomach flips and he grins back stupidly.

Someone brushes by Chris and he steps forward, steps into Joey's space, and then murmurs an apology. "Getting kind of crowded in here."

"Uh huh," Joey says, because that's definitely the kind of wit and skill with words he wants on display right now. Yep.

"Why don't we-" Chris starts, but someone calls his name and he spins around, shoulder brushing Joey's. He raises a hand in greeting and then holds up one finger to whoever is trying to get his attention. He turns back to Joey with a sigh. "That's Dan, I've got to - I'll try to be quick, okay?"

Then he's gone and Joey is very, very confused.

It's not quick.

In fact, he doesn't see Chris again for almost an hour. He's lost Darren too, but that's all right, because Dianna found him standing somewhat awkwardly by himself nursing a drink.

He likes Dianna. She's sweet and smells like candy and she talks to him about the things he does like she really gives a damn, which is more than Joey can say for most of the people in this room. He gets it; he doesn't exactly get kicks out of listening to some guy talk about how he gets paid multi millions to stand around and look pretty, so why should anyone else care about his singing stupid songs on the internet? Except that sometimes people do care and it's nice.

He hopes she doesn't notice that he keeps looking around. He hopes that if she does notice she just thinks he's looking for Darren. He think she knows why Darren keeps disappearing and he's maybe not planning on murdering Darren anymore, but there will be some slight maiming, at least.

Joey's found a nice spot outside. It's by the pool, away from the noise and stifling perfumed heat of the house. He lays down, not really caring anymore that he's getting his jacket damp and grassy, not caring about anything.

He's ready to go - has been ready to go for a while, since Dianna got whisked away and he saw Darren disappearing behind a closer door with his game face on, what Joey likes to mentally refer to his iyou will fucking love me and give me some goddamn money for it/I face.

He's sleepy and he has to get up and go to work in the morning (a real job, he thinks, a little bitter - a real, low paying, bad hours, hard and not really rewarding work job) but Darren's being the best friend he can be by giving Joey an in to even see what this world is like and Joey isn't going to complain.

His skin prickles and a shadow falls over him. He blinks his eyes open and finds Chris staring down at him. "Found you," Chris murmurs. His voice is soft, sweet, and he looks ethereal framed in the glow of the distant porch lights behind him.

"Were you looking for me?" Joey asks, feeling like this moment is a bubble that's going to pop any second now.

Chris sits down beside him, back facing the house. His bent knee touches Joey's hip.

He's lost his jacket somewhere and he's just in a blue button up now. It looks soft and comfortable and expensive. Joey wants it touch it, and probably not stop there. "Yeah."

"Why?" Joey doesn't sit up, but he crosses his arms behind his head so he can see better.

Chris shrugs. "Darren said he thought we'd get along."

"Yeah? Oh, that Darren, and his ideas."

Chris blinks at him. "Disclaimer," he says. "I'm a little drunk."

"A little?"

This time he squints. "A lot?"

Joey laughs. "Well, I'm a little drunk, too."

Chris seems to be considering that. "Okay, then. Can I lay down?"

"You're not gonna puke, are you?" Joey doesn't really think Chris looks that drunk, but he wants to be sure. He might not have time to shower before his morning shift.

"No. Swear it," Chris says, taking the question seriously.

"Well, then. Free country. Free... someone else's back yard." Joey pats the grass beside him.

He expects Chris to leave some distance between them, but he doesn't. He's pressed against Joey shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip. "I haven't seen your shows."

"Um. Okay?" Joey has no idea how to respond.

"I mean... I wanted to have something to talk about, so I bought them. The Starship one? I bought that. But I didn't have time to watch it."

"You could have just borrowed it from Darren," Joey points out. He's trying hard to ignore the pleasant weightless feeling he gets thinking that Chris has actively thought about him. About having a conversation with him.

Chris turns his head to look at Joey. "Have you met Darren? He'd never stop making fun of me."

Joey laughs. "Yeah. Touche."

"Touchy," Chris giggles, and yeah, he's definitely drunk.

They talk. They talk about nothing, really, because Chris has the attention span of a gnat right now, so Joey mostly listens as he rambles from topic to topic. He hears about Chris's book, about his cat, the things he wants to do, the things he has done.

And he cares. He really fucking cares, because he could listen to Chris talk for forever, and ifuck Darren/I, fuck him, because he knew Joey had this thing, and Joey doesn't have a fucking clue what Darren might have told Chris, but this isn't at all going how Joey had planned. Joey hadn't planned on it going at all. He'd planned on seeing Chris, maybe secretly checking out his ass a couple times, going home and jerking off thinking of a sweet soft mouth wrapped around his dick, and tucking that burning guilt-shame-exhilaration into the same pocket as all the rest of his previous crushes.

Then Chris goes silent and Joey thinks maybe he's fallen asleep so he turns his head to check and Chris isn't asleep. He's not asleep, he's just looking - staring at Joey.

"What..." Joey starts and trails off because Chris is moving. He's sitting up and his hand presses splayed on Joey's chest and then.

Then Chris is kissing him. Soft, dry, his lips closing around Joey's bottom lip and pressing in. Joey barely has time to respond before Chris is pulling away.

"Whoa," Joey breathes.

"Sorry?" Chris is staring at him with wide eyes. "I mean-"

"Joseph!" Darren's voice comes calling out. Joey jolts up, tongue darting out to lick his lip. "You out here- oh, hey. Uh. Hi? Am I interrupting?"

Despite all prior teasing, Darren actually seems genuinely surprised to have found them together.

"I was just boring Joey." Chris says, and holds an arm out to Darren.

Darren obediently gives him a tug up, catching him when he stumbles forward a bit. He offers the same hand down to Joey and helps him to his feet. "Yeah, sorry, I just know you need to be up early so I thought we'd cut out now if you're ready. But I can totally give you guys some more time if-"

"No, it's fine," Chris says. "I need to get going soon anyway, early call in the morning."

"Yeah, I'm not in until afternoon, but I'll see you then." Darren tugs Chris in for a hug and Joey feels - he feels something. Jealous, maybe. Wishing he could rewind the clock and make Darren not interrupt. Wishing...

Darren and Chris pull away and Chris is just looking at him so Joey hops forward stupidly (always, always stupidly) and tugs Chris in for a hug, too. "I had fun talking."

Chris's arms loop around his neck and the gust of breath on Joey's neck makes him shiver. "Me, too."

"We'll have to do it again some time, yeah?" Joey says and his voice cracks a little and he hopes Chris can tell how much he really really really means it.


End file.
